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Video: In Iowa, political showdown

Transcript of: In Iowa, political showdown

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:political editor and chief White House correspondent
Chuck Todd
is in
Des Moines
,
Iowa
, tonight.
Chuck
, where does the
GOP
stand now going into this crucial but again very early weekend?

CHUCK TODD reporting:Well, look, if it wasn't clear before last night, it is crystal clear today. Thanks to the entrance of
Rick Perry
,
Mitt Romney
's front-runner status, the two
Minnesota
Republicans,
Michele Bachmann
and
Tim Pawlenty
, believe that tomorrow's
straw poll
is the last chance for one of them to stay relevant in this presidential race.

TODD:The mad dash to the Republican
straw poll
in
Ames
tomorrow brought many of the contenders to the
Iowa State Fair
today.

Sen. SANTORUM:It's hard
to get things done to move this country in the right direction. I've done it.

Mr. HERMAN CAIN (Republican Presidential Candidate):Here's something they don't know about
Herman Cain
. I have been going against the odds all my life.

Representative RON PAUL (Republican Presidential Candidate):We have to endorse a very basic principle and it's called freedom.

TODD:But today's buzz wasn't about anything said on the
state fair
soapbox, it was the repeated tense exchanges last night between
Minnesota
Republicans
Tim Pawlenty
and
Michele Bachmann
.

Representative MICHELE BACHMANN:You implemented cap and trade in our state, and you praised the unconstitutional individual mandate, and you called for requiring all people in our state to purchase health insurance that government would mandate. That sounds a lot more like
Barack Obama
, if you ask me.

Former Governor TIM PAWLENTY:She led the effort against
Obamacare
, we got
Obamacare
. She led the effort against
TARP
, we got
TARP
. If that's your view of effective leadership with results, please stop because you're killing us.

TODD:Tomorrow's
straw poll
could settle this battle of the
Minnesota twins
. A first place showing could establish either as a top challenger to
Mitt Romney
and
Rick Perry
, neither of whom are attending the
Ames
event. Romney's already back in
New Hampshire
and
Texas
Governor
Perry
announces his candidacy tomorrow in
South Carolina
.

Offscreen Voice:Are you a potential candidate?

Former Governor SARAH PALIN:Still a potential. Still thinking about it.

TODD:And
Sarah Palin
couldn't stay away. She stormed into the
state fair
today, reminding Iowans she still might run. But she also had nice things to say about
Rick Perry
, whom she campaigned for extensively in
2010
.

Gov. PALIN:There is still plenty of room in that field for common sense conservatives who have executive experience.

TODD:Now a lot of
Republicans
out here,
Brian
, are nervous that
Sarah Palin
is somehow going to pull a surprise and not run, but pull a surprise and endorse
Rick Perry
. They're actually pretty close personally. We'll see on that front. By the way, keep an eye on
Ron Paul
. He could end up spoiling this whole thing with the
Minnesota
folks and end up winning the
straw poll
. And then we start all over watching
Perry
v.
Romney
.

WILLIAMS:Boy, are politics in the air this summer of
2011
.
Chuck Todd
at the
state fair
tonight.
Chuck
, thanks.

WASHINGTON — Michele Bachmann cast her opinion as a settled fact when she told the Republican presidential debate Thursday that a key element of President Barack Obama's health care law is unconstitutional. And Mitt Romney danced around an attempt to learn why he stayed largely mum on the epic debt limit standoff between Obama and Congress.

The first big GOP debate of the primary season brought viewers a flurry of claims and counterclaims, not all built on solid ground.

A look at some of those claims and how they compare with the facts:

BACHMANN: Spoke of "the unconstitutional individual mandate" several times, a reference to a requirement for people to carry health insurance, a central element of the 2010 federal health care law.

THE FACTS: Nothing is unconstitutional until courts declare it to be so. The constitutionality of the individual mandate has been challenged in lawsuits in a number of states, and federal judges have found in favor and against. On Friday, a federal appeals court panel struck down the requirement. The Supreme Court will probably have the final word.

THE FACTS: Pawlenty was hardly dismissive when news came out about Bachmann's history of severe headaches, even if he did not go after her directly on the matter. "All of the candidates, I think, are going to have to be able to demonstrate they can do all of the job all of the time," the former governor said when first asked about the migraines suffered by the congresswoman. "There's no real time off in that job."

There was no mistaking that Pawlenty was leaving open the question of whether Bachmann's health history made her fit to serve as president. But he later tried to clarify his remark, saying he was not challenging her on that front and the flap was merely a "sideshow." Bachmann says her symptoms are controlled with prescription medication and have not gotten in the way of her campaign or impaired her service in Congress.

___

ROMNEY (on the last-minute deal to avert a national debt default): "I'm not going to eat Barack Obama's dog food, all right? What he served up was not what I would have done if I'd had been president of the United States."

THE FACTS: Romney was defending himself against criticism that he took a pass when political leadership was most needed in the mighty struggle to negotiate an agreement to raise the debt ceiling. In fact, he was largely missing in the crux of the debate.

Romney consistently backed a Republican "cut, cap and balance" proposal that would have combined deep spending cuts with a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. But that proposal had no chance of becoming law and settling the crisis, and leaders in both parties knew it. It was one of several initiatives brought forward by both Republicans and Democrats for show before both sides got down to the authentic bipartisan negotiations.

During that process, Romney did not lay out a prescription that was achievable in a time of divided government. Supporting the earlier GOP bill was a far cry from stating whether he would have signed or vetoed the final debt limit legislation, because rejecting it risked an unprecedented federal default with potentially disastrous consequences for the economy.

When he faced questions at his campaign stops, he said he wasn't privy to the behind-the-scene negotiations, and his campaign aides refused to elaborate on his thinking about the proposals in serious play.

___

RICK SANTORUM: "The problem is that we have spending that has exploded. The government's averaged 18 percent of GDP as the percentage of the overall economy. ... And we're now at almost 25 percent. Revenues are down about 2 or 3 percent. So if you look at where the problem is, the problem is in spending, not taxes."

THE FACTS: The former Pennsylvania senator might have been mixing statistics on federal spending with federal revenue. The White House budget office has estimated that federal spending this year will equal about 25 percent of the country's $15 trillion economy — the highest proportion since World War II. But federal spending has averaged nearly 22 percent since 1970. In fact, federal spending has not been as low as 18 percent since 1966. Since the 1970s, federal revenues have averaged nearly 19 percent of the U.S. economy. This year's revenues are expected to equal just over 14 percent of the economy, the lowest level since 1950.

BACHMANN to PAWLENTY: "You said the era of small government was over. That sounds an awful lot like Barack Obama if you ask me."

THE FACTS: Pawlenty did not declare the era of small government over. (Neither has Obama.) Bachmann's jab was drawn from a Minnesota newspaper interview in which Pawlenty referred to a New York Times column on the subject, as part of his argument that "there are certain circumstances where you've got to have government put up the guardrails or bust up entrenched interests before they become too powerful." At the time, Pawlenty's office pushed for and received a clarification from the newspaper that he was relaying another writer's thoughts.

___

Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Alan Fram in Washington, Brian Bakst in St. Paul, Minn., and Philip Elliott in Ames, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.